The Institute for Digital Entertainment and Education is working on a project which makes its director beg the question, "What's the point of delivering information anymore?"
Rodger Smith is the director of IDEE, a group focused on presenting information in a more visual format, primarily over the Internet to engage students in all types of media, including a project to create digital supplements for textbooks.
"The goal is to give you an experience that makes you want to solve a problem using every kind of media," Smith said. "It doesn't eliminate text, but it gives it more meaning."
Smith said this is the first time anyone has tried to create the supplements, and the material could be made available online for half the cost.
"You have to ask yourself, 'What is compelling?'" Smith said. "I believe that education should be entertaining."
Smith said reading textbooks promotes standard linear reading, but we are all visual learners.
"With this new method, interviews and text will be used to supplement what the viewer has already experienced through video and images," Smith said.
Funding for the IDEE came from a grant from the Lilly Foundation.
"It started with the Center for Media and Design, which was made possible by a $20 million grant from Lilly," Smith said. "When the funds ran out, Lilly invited us to apply for a second grant. IDEE was one of four components of the grant."
For the first two years, IDEE focused on research. During the next three years, it worked to establish a definition of the project and began to take action.
Smith will spend all of his time working with IDEE until the funding is exhausted next August. Then he will return to teaching at Ball State University.
There are about 100 students helping on IDEE projects; some have paid positions while others earn class credit for their work. IDEE is working with Calamari Productions to create video material for the juvenile justice system. Criminal justice students are working on this project as part of a juvenile justice immersion course.
"I got an e-mail saying I was chosen for the project," senior Jeffrey Wilson said. "It was something I would normally delete, but I decided to do it. There's 22 students working on the project, and they all bring different ideas to the table."
Senior Ashley Campbell said even though she is a criminal justice major, she is gaining a new appreciation for media.
"We're working on researching and learning how to use different programs," Campbell said. "We work with small groups to edit videos. Now I have a new respect for people who edit TV shows."
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